The communities of Las Mercedes and El Naranjito are located in the northwestern part of El Salvador and are home to approximately 150 families of mostly coffee farmers. The rural and remote location of these communities has contributed to a long-standing deficiency in the accessibility to potable drinking water. In addition, community members often are not able to afford the fuel necessary to boil water for safe drinking. The El Salvador Ministry of Health has expressed serious concern regarding the undernourishment of many children in these mountain communities. This problem has often been identified as one of the symptoms of water-borne diarrheal disease, usually from lack of potable water.